Opinion
Barry Artiste, Now Public ContributorYou know, I was tempted to include my No Shit Sherlock Photo into this story, but decided against it, as it is far from humourous.
With Attorney General Wally Oppal, our Head Judge announcing this week on February 16, 2009 that his department will be laying off 100 staffers in the prosecutors office speaks volumes on the British Columbia's when they spout useless rhetoric in their obvious flaccid response in fighting crime! What with seems like a gangland hit a week, certainly stinks in Wally Ministry! Time for some splain'in Lucy! Time to give Wally the Heave Ho as well, as many citizens are screaming mad with BCs Revolving Door Justice.
British Columbia's new Title as a World Crime Superpower is nothing to be proud of and certainly speaks volumes of our Government Leadership and Ineffective Justice System in this province who have allowed the criminal enterprise to propagate, just in time for the 2010 Olympics, and we wonder why security for the Olympics once estimated a scant year ago at a 140 million is now close to a Billion dollars of taxpayers money!
Many on Now Public had read my countless articles on this issue of an ineffective Justice Systems catch and release programs and a government who throws money to police to stop it. Police may catch the criminals, but it is the incompetent BC Courts, Judges and Justice system which releases the Criminals back onto the streets faster than the Police can arrest them again, and again and again.
Is it any wonder frustrated Police Officers lose it, and beat the crap out of repeat criminals, when the Officers know their efforts are for nothing. Officers are meant to protect us, but cannot if the Justice system releases criminals back into society to do us harm.
One aspect of an ineffective Justice System will be citizens taking Vigilante Justice into their own hands, resulting in more lawlessness. Presnetly we are known in Law Enforcement Circle North American wide as the "True Wild West of Lawlessness".
Surrey BC, for instance is North America's Number #1 Car Theft Capital.
Surrey also has terrorist elements who have threatened the Mayor over her disapproval over their Terrorist Bent.
Only in British Columbia has this resulted in No Action against this well known group deemed terrorist ties by our Federal Government. One wonders if this same Terrorist Organization were living in the USA and made similar life threats against any American Mayor or Bureaucrat, that the entire US military and Law Enforcement community would not immediately swoop down upon them, and make them disappear permanently.
Only British Columbia deserves the Distinction of "Nancy British Columbia."
Miami, once the crime capital of the world, was a mecca of criminal cocaine activity, an activity which saw drug money building a city to unimaginable proportions as Criminal Organizations had no way to launder their drug money without getting the attention of a watchful US government, this pumped their Drug Money amounting to Billions of dollars into construction projects and new businesses at every street corner, while politicians knew the deal, looked the other way.
Anyone who lives in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland can certainly see the Miami similarities of money infusion into cities in the lower mainland, unlimited construction projects at every turn. People, especially those new to Canada with no appreciable amount of employment income living beyond their means in 1 million dollar homes, Does this not strike anyone as unusual?
Of course it seems Realtors have no problem in accepting Cash offers, no questions asked. I wonder of anyone else but criminals have that much walking around money?
Our Ports have dock workers ranging from Hell's Angels to other criminal elements, yet when the Government wanted to perform Security and Criminal Background checks on people employed in our Ports offloading cargo, the Union protested and the Government backed down.
I see it everyday in my profession and wonder if Politicians of every level are Blind, or just not caring about the Criminal activity in this province.
One video, one should rent is "Cocaine Cowboys", how Miami came to be because of the influx of Drug money and make a comparison and see how Vancouver is faring as Miami's equal.
Certainly when Politicians state that British Columbia, in particular "Vancouver is the Best place in the World to live". They are certainly correct from a Criminal's Perspective!
And when 2010 Olympics hit this Province, it is only going to get worse People, cause after the Olympics those Criminal organizations who visit here, will look at our Non existent court and justice system, and will decide to make British Columbia their home base, it will be far worse than you can imagine! Mark my words!
How B.C. became a world crime superpower16/05/2008 5:15:20 PM
By JASON KIRBY AND NANCY MACDONALD
Forget forestry or fishing. B.C.'s big, multi-billion-dollar growth industry is crime. And business is booming.By almost any measure it was a thriving enterprise, with subsidiaries in eight countries and a flourishing distribution business. Even more impressive, it was run out of Vancouver, a city that's seen many head offices disappear over the years. And with its strong sales, the venture would easily have been considered one of British Columbia's largest private companies. That is, if the operation at the heart of it all wasn't a criminal syndicate trading in marijuana, cocaine, heroin, guns and real estate.
In December, officers from the RCMP and Vancouver Police Department showed off the results of a 14-month investigation called Project E-Paragon. Working with police in the U.S. and Australia, officers seized $168 million worth of drugs, along with luxury homes, exotic vehicles, millions in cash and weapons. More than 100 people were arrested worldwide, including the alleged ringleader, 50-year-old Yong Long Ye of Vancouver. The allegations regarding the crime ring have not been proven in court, but police believe they've broken up an incredibly complex and profitable operation. And if Canadians are inclined to believe this was a one-off scheme, an aberration to the postcard-perfect image British Columbia projects to the world, think again. There are lots more, we don't have a shortage of targets, says RCMP Supt. Doug Kiloh, of the combined special forces enforcement unit in Vancouver.
Consider, for a moment, just a few figures that show the size and scope of the crime industry in B.C.:
• There are an estimated 20,000 marijuana grow ops in houses across the province, and many thousands more hidden in the mountains and valleys of the interior. It's conservatively estimated that marijuana is an industry with revenues of $5 billion to $7 billion a year.
• In the last few years, according to the Canadian Border Services Agency, more than $1 billion worth of cocaine has been seized at borders in the Pacific region. One media report last fall found the amount of cocaine recovered at B.C.'s borders more than tripled in the previous two years.
• The province is the main port of entry for chemicals used in the manufacture of drugs such as methamphetamine and ecstasy, while B.C.-based Asian gangs are the largest suppliers of ecstasy to Canada and the U.S.
• In the last year there have been roughly two dozen gangland slayings in the Vancouver region. The number of homicides in B.C.'s Lower Mainland in the first four months of this year was nearly three times that of Toronto. And when Maclean's recently looked at Canada's most dangerous cities using data from Statistics Canada, 11 of the top 20 were located in B.C. Meanwhile the number of gangs operating in the province has jumped from less than 10 a decade ago to 129.
Add it all up, and you can't help but see British Columbia for what it is - a key hub in the world of international organized crime. For all its natural beauty and its Birkenstock reputation, police now put Vancouver on par with New York and Los Angeles when they talk of cities in the grip of criminal syndicates. By some estimates, criminal activity amounts to roughly seven per cent of the province's total economy. Though hard and fast numbers about the size of organized crime are impossible to determine, it's safe to say that alongside construction and tourism, criminal activity is one of B.C.'s strongest growth industries. We can quibble about a billion dollars here or a billion dollars there, says Darryl Plecas, a criminology professor at the University College of the Fraser Valley. But the bottom line is there's no question this is a multi-billion [dollar] industry. And as Western Canada positions itself to be North America's most important commercial corridor to Asia, with the much-heralded Pacific Gateway initiative, criminal gangs are poised to expand their operations in a huge way. Crime is big business in B.C., and business, unfortunately, is booming.
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Well. Take a look, someone has to say this -- I am thrilled for the opportunity to say it in my first national address to the nation -- and I'm going to touch on this in more detail in a moment, but this is just to get you thinking -- take a look at all the constituency groups that for 50 years have been depending on the Democrat Party to improve their lives. And you tell me if you find any. They're still complaining, still griping about the same problems. Their problems don't get fixed by government. And those lives have been poisoned. Those lives have been cut short by false promises, from government representatives who said don't worry about it, we'll take care of you. Just vote for us. [Applause]
What's the longest war in American history? Did somebody say the war on poverty? Smart group. War on poverty. The war on poverty essentially started in the '30s as part of the New Deal, but it really ramped up in the '60s with Lyndon Johnson, part of the Great Society war on poverty. We have transferred something like 10 trillion, maybe close to 11 trillion, from producers and earners to nonproducers and nonearners since 1965. Yet, as I listen to the Democratic Party campaign, why, America is still a soup kitchen, the poor is still poor and they have no hope and they're poor for what reason? They're poor because of us, because we don't care, and because we've gotten rich by taking from them, that's what kids in school are taught today. That's what others have said to the media. You know why they're poor, you know why they remain poor? Because their lives have been destroyed by the never-ending government hay that's designed to help them, but it destroys ambition. It destroys the education they might get to learn to be self-fulfilling. [Applause] And it breaks our heart. It breaks our heart. We lose track of numbers with all of the money, with all the money that's been transferred, redistributed, with all the charitable giving in this country. 
